I did predict to myself that the the Osprey juvs would be flying soon, and both chicks are now on the wing. It really is great to see these birds arrive, produce fledglings and subsequently leave. I got a bit confused as a juvenile was on the branch that later was occupied by an Osprey with a Pike, still alive and I'm afraid being eaten. I thought well that's cool, hardly on the wing and itÂ has a fish! Of course it was the male and after he had his bit from the head I watched him land on the nest and release it to a beggingÂ juv. He then went off to the right were you can see him. Eventually both juvs and the female were on the nest and the Juv who got first chance at feeding from the male, kept the fish, subsequently released it to the next Juv, the female by now had stopped her begging calls, and the next juv fed. I went off and returned in half an hour to see the female feeding, presumably on the same fish. What a nice domestic scene, but I wondered if the female Osprey had lost hunting skills being fed by the male for 3 months, or was it just a case of that fish is big enough I'll wait my turn to get a bit? Well I guess she could hunt well enough but when grub is served why not wait your turn?
You can see the difference in the male to the female Osprey by looking at the chest, the female is much browner across the chest, trust me this took a while to work out.
The neighbouring buzzards obviously have a juv who I could hear mewing, mewing differently from the parents, you can tell its a buzzard but a Juv, kind of a begging call and a mew combined, anyway one of the parents took exception to me being too near, some 200m, so I got some pics of it atop a tree,Â perfectly balanced on one leg.Â Using the timed release on my ancient Nikon 990 I had to take quite a few shots to actually catch him "mewing". I often wonder why buzzards mew when hunting, surely the element of surprise is compromised? they are truly a success story since the 1981 law kicked in. Just imagine how many buzzards were trapped, shot or poisoned to keep the population from what it is now to say 20 years ago, then ask yourself, who did all this culling?